Japanese Food (and Drink) Pictures

Here are all the photos from the other pages that prominently display
food (well, with a few restaurant shots included). I have
sorted these thematically, rather than by location. Go to the Photo Index to view these in their proper context.
That said, enjoy these mouth-watering pictures of ... food.

Curry Pan, or Curry Bread,
isa popular Japanese treatconsisting of a Japanese-style
meat curry
fillinginside deep-fried bread. This store these are from is
the original creatorof curry pan in the world.(One of
these pans is "extra spicy";hence the difference in shape.)

Beautiful fried round curry
pan. Made by the originator of curry pan,these lived up to
their elite statusand were exceptionally tasty.

According to the packaging, this particular store
("Katorea"??) invented the
precursor of "curry pan" in about 1927, when they started
selling an item called "Western style bread."

Also note: in Japan, all bread is
called "pan"(probably from Portuguese), includingweird but tasty Japanese inventions like melon-flavored
bread ("melon pan").

Roasted sweet potatoes are
a traditional Japanese food(for some reason said to
appealto women in particular -so much so that is is a
stereotype).In olden days,vendors would bring their
(hand-pulled?) carts down through the street and (presumably)
shout,the low-tech equivalentof ice cream trucks.Of
course, these days...

...this guy in the camo
outfitannounced "yaaakiii imoooo" over loudspeakers as he
drove slowly up the streetin this modern truck.At
least the way he yelledsounded very traditional.Here he is
picking out some hot sweet potatoes.

The sign on the side of the
truck reads "yakiimo."Sadly, yaki imo vendors are apparently
getting to be quite rare.Another reason I had to
buy some real yaki imo from this guy!

Here's a close-up of
a small but tastyhot and sweet yaki imo. Three bigger ones are in the
bag.I was bummed because
I was already pretty full
and this was my last day :(Cultural note: plain "imo" is "sweet potato" and "jaga-imo"
is a plain potato. Kinda weird, eh?
It says something aboutthe order in which those foods
were introduced....

Mito Natto(wrapped the
old-fashioned way and brought triumphantly back to
Tokyo).Natto used to form naturally whenwrapped in straw (rice
straw, the 'net says) like this.

Natto, opened(Yum
... or is that yuck?)

An apple treein a
farmer's orchard near Nagano.

Big, tasty, Nagano
apple.Home-grown (by a farmer in the family).Hands are held up for size comparison.I believe every apple isindividually covered in a bag
while still very young on the tree.This is the picture of an authenticNagano gift apple,
huge and juicy and sweet.

Peeled
persimmon wedges with seeds. These were brought to the hotelby
the guests for snacking:home grown, and very sweet.Two
different varieties.Nagano.

Expensive, HUGE,
veggies.Actually, the daikon is tiny by Japanese standards,but
the shiitake mushrooms are ginormous.(Takashimaya basement.)

Japanese creme soda!!OK, sadly this
cream soda at Naritawas pretty bad. However, overall,
Japanese cream sodas(creme sodas?)taste very, very nice.
They have a rich, delicate fruity
aspect lacking in their American counterparts.
(Yes, they are supposed to be green.)
These days they all seem to be
called "melon cream sodas."

Dried fish display

I'm told this stuff
isthat famous poisonous puffer fish (fugu) on display as
sashimi. The price seems about right (eep)...

The camera can't capture the
truly fresh-fish color and sheen,but I had to try!

Drink vending
machines,elegant and futuristic and clean.(I much prefer
Japanese drinks to the usualcola/soda/pop selection of American
ones.)These drink machines are EVERYWHERE!I even bought
a nice corn soup can from one in Kyoto.